Alberto Beltrán - The Man-Piston - Ink and Pencil P2777
We can see Beltrán here working out how to picture the dehumanizing effect of factory work, how to illustrate how an industrial world enslaves its workers: a powerful man is literally encased in machinery and is straining to be released before he is ground down or torn into pieces. Powerful political art was one of the artist's metiers, and one at which he excelled. The true thrust of the image is that the man is perhaps ultimately stronger than the machine.
Measures 9 1/4" x 8".
Purchased from a Mexico City collector who acquired a trove of Alberto Beltrán's drawings and prints from the artist's estate. These pieces give us a wonderful insight into the process (and breadth of interests) of this hitherto somewhat neglected artist, whose work is only just now coming into prominence.
Alberto Beltrán García (born March 22, 1923, Mexico City, d. April 19, 2002, Mexico City) was a Mexican graphic artist and painter known principally for his work with publications such as illustrations and political cartoons but he created a number of murals as well. He was born in the rough neighborhood of Tepito and began drawing for local publishers when he was a teenager. He attended the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas where one of his teachers introduced him to the Taller de Gráfica Popular where he began his career in earnest. From the late 1940s until his death, he work with various publications, mostly newspapers, but he also did book illustrations as well. In his later career, he worked on a number of murals, especially in the state of Veracruz, which he had an affinity for. Despite winning a number of important awards for his work, he is relatively unknown even in Mexico, with collections of his work scattered among a number of institutions.
